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Janet Barner
Janet Barner is a St. Thom Huell student who first appeared alongside Violet at the Brain Olympics in London. While Barnaby and Robert were attacked by bugs, Janet was locked up in her room alongside with Violet due to malfunction of the hotels servers. They managed to escape the hotel before it blew up. Janet may hold some affection for Robert, and shares similar academic interests with him. Biography Another Superscientist Janet later showed up to visit Ned and Brian Phillips at hospital with her friend, Violet, after the Phillips brothers were confined to hospital due to being turned temporarily into trolls and facing Layla's wrath. Ned appeared to show some interest in Janet, considerably more than what she reciprocated. It is believed that this went nowhere, as the two did not appear in each other's company afterwards. Ned and Janet may have known each other due to shared classes, perhaps history (which Ned has been known to take). Later, Janet confirmed to Robert that she has never gone out with anyone. Janet went with the class to the Greater Rosewater History Museum and stayed with Imogen behind to study some of the old tablets. She helped Imogen escape from the golem with a bike she modified herself. When the rest of the group arrived she drove back to school, not wanting to deal with the golem, but professed a more-than academic interest in Robert after Imogen asked her about her bike, blushing. Drained Later, as the group were investigating James' condition, it transpired that Janet got her brainpower stolen when she was near the library and was confined to a ward in Greater Rosewater Hospital. By far the most lucid of the patients there due to her high intelligence, she managed to give out crucial clues and warn the group to not use pen and ink. It was revealed that Mr. Penrose, the librarian, was in fact the fallen angel Penemue, who possessed power over pen and ink, and had drained Janet when she was near the library to sustain himself and his powers. After Penrose was slain by the group Janet's intelligence was returned. She visited Robert in the hospital and thanked him for restoring her intelligence, She mentioned that she knew about some of the supernatural things going on, and that she was aware of "superscience" and its difference from mundane science before Robert was, adding a gently chiding joke at Robert's expense by claiming she never joined the Science Fair because it wasn't fair to competence with superscience items. She promised to help if asked upon as a result of her debts to the group, but when Robert extended an offer for her to join on a more permanent basis Janet refused to become closer to the group due to James' recent death and her preferring a more mundane life and to survive her education at St Thom Huell's. Despite this, Robert appeared to have and indeed grow in affection towards Janet, having not expressed interest in her before. It was revealed that she was a major player in some intimate and embarrasing dreams he had experienced. The New Year In the new year, Janet, who had attempted to avoid Robert, ended up sitting next to him in Maths, where she mentioned she had rather bad grades. Janet had become more withdrawn after her experience at the hands of Penemue, becoming paler and thinner and becoming more of a recluse, and has apparently been ill very often. While Robert was attempting to cheer Janet up, Julian Carroway was hit by a collapsing shelf. When the class was vacated as a result, Janet quickly fled. Later it transpired that Janet had apparently sent a Valentine's card to Robert, which stated that she was sorry that she turned him down and wished she had the courage to ask him out again. He eventually tried to bring this up, but Janet managed to divert the conversation. After this, Robert's friends and Violet tried to get them together. Eventually Imogen went to speak to Janet, who was crying in the girls' toilets, trying not to be there. Janet eventually spoke to Imogen, saying that she preferred to be there as she found it quieter. Imogen confided in Janet that she didn't have to be alone, and that STH was dangerous anyway. Janet stated that it would be a lot effort and that Robert had a lot of baggage, but would be open to one date. Janet was interested in Robert's workshop. Later, Robert went to try and find Janet, but could not find her. He tried to phone up the numbers listed for the Barner household (of which there were two in Little Rosewater), but could not find out where she lived. Eventually, the team became more preoccupied with current affairs to chase up on the Janet situation. This was only resolved when they came across a new transfer student who was eager to befriend them, Robbie Williams. When they discovered was a robot, as Robert fixed Robbie he gained an inkling that Janet had created Robbie. They sought to find where both Robbie came from, and ideally to determine whether he was made by Janet. Using GPS and tracking data retrieved from a anti-demon robot and Robbie's own memories, they investigated the Little Rosewater Swimming Pool. After finding an elevator into a secret lab believed to be owned by Janet, they found her there, alongside a variety of equipment. Layla charged ahead to look at Janet, who appeared tired and withdrawn, but triggered the lab's defensive measures, including drones disguised as baked bean tins and laser armatures. Once they had cleared the room, Robert tried to talk to Janet, but she seemed to be off. They managed to work out that it wasn't Janet due to her mannerisms, and Layla noticed a ticking like a bomb. Layla's decision to communicate the issue was to punch a hole in the chest cavity of the Janet-bot, before asking Rob to defuse her, which he did with ease. They searched the computer banks and discovered that Janet had constructed three robots, all named after British musicians: *''Robbie Williams'', the humanoid robot set to befriend and protect them. *''Freddie Mercury'', an anti-demon robot that had attacked Layla. *''Ringo Starr'', the Janet-bot. Due to a lack of maintenance over the past month, Mercury and Starr had incomplete programming, resulting in Starr being largely useless and Robbie slowly running out of energy. It was discovered that Janet had also constructed robot parents, after her parents had been killed a year earlier by a blonde hitch-hiker outside the town. The others identified her as Charity. Having made it out from the Swimming Pool, which blew up due to the partially defused Janbot Bomb, they began to track her down. Checking out her house, they found Janet's parents dead in the living room. Barnaby broke in via the upstairs window in an attempt to locate Janet, but quickly grew slothful, prompting both Layla, then finally Rob and Robbie to enter her house. Layla fell prey to the same effect as Barnaby, Rob though managed to hold it at bay. Robbie was unaffected. Janet's parents were found not to be "dead", but de-powered robots. Rob found Janet in her room, barely breathing. Janet's only action was to order Robbie, her own robot, to blow up Rob. This did not kill Rob, though it did partially destroy Janet's house, after Janet's other robot, Freddie Mercury, attacked them and blocked Robbie's chest missiles. Robert managed to rally the others to help Janet, and she was evacuated from the house, alongside the rest of the group. Barnaby evacuated via slayer based defenestration. Finding out that Janet was the source of the Sloth aura, Rob tried to help her fight it as emotional support, saying that he loved her. This removed the entity that the team would later learn as being the Sin of Sloth. The Other Superscientist After the purging of Sloth from Janet, she explained that she wanted to help the others but was afraid and guilty that she had turned down Robert's offer months prior. Sloth had presumably taken advantage of this to possess her. Janet became interested in becoming Robert's girlfriend but wanted to do things slowly. She did open somewhat compared to her earlier status and Robert offered to help her in class. They also told Janet about Charity, who had killed her parents, but she was more restrained about it and willing to work with them than Ned, who had suffered a similar fate. However, Robert's anger at Janet being possessed by Sloth was exploited by Wrath, which in turn possessed him, turning him against the group. Janet inadvertently assisted this by telling Robert things which the others were intentionally keeping from him. When Robert was almost entirely consumed by Wrath, he kidnapped Janet and Violet, drugging them and keeping them in his workshop. His other friends were also drugged and Layla eventually found all of them. Janet and the others went to face Robert at the Hellmouth, where he fought them alongside Charity, who implied that Robert had left Janet for her. Robert was hurt by her presumed betrayal, hurting Janet in return psychologically. Robert resisted hurting Janet, but Ned, who had been possessed by Gluttony, had his aura affect Layla, who uncontrollably attacked Janet. Robert recovered from his possession by Wrath with help from his friends and Janet. After the depossession of both Robert and Ned, Janet was taken to the hospital, where Robert felt extremely guilty over his treatment of her. Barnaby in particular helped smuggle Janet to Robert's room and tried to set them up. Later, when Charity reappeared and Layla ran off to Tunisia, Robert followed Tunisia with his friends, but realised that he had left Janet behind and was plagued by guilt. Janet was given a Charity-tracker by Layla, who had got it from Ra. Janet tried to call Robert when Charity attacked the Davidsons' household, but the line died, leaving him fearing the worst. In fact, Ra's contract with Layla put a forcefield around the Davidsons' house, keeping Janet and George Davidson free from harm. Janet helped in the re-insouling of Charity, assisting directly in the spell with Imogen, who was casting it. After George Davidson was reassigned and his house became Watcher property, Janet offered the use of her house as an interim storage facility for the group's books. It was used as their headquarters in the campaign against Thom Huell. Personality and Traits Janet is a generally demure girl with pale skin from not venturing out often and blue eyes. She is freckled and has dark brown hair. She is a very intelligent, albeit quiet girl with an interest in keeping out of the supernatural business that surrounds Little Rosewater. Usually one of the best in classes, she lost a lot of spirit after her draining by Penemue. She had and appears to continue to show an interest in Robert Davidson, but this appeared to have been affected by her circumstance, which has led to a lack of motivation and a proclivity to miss classes. Ultimately, Janet's withdrawn nature were revealed to have been due to the murder of her parents by a vampire, Charity, and the subsequent possession of her by Sloth after she declined helping the others. After being depossessed she joined the team full-time as an assistant superscientist, specialising in non-field work like hacking. She is, in fact, a better superscientist than Robert, who is a more rounded individual. She specialises in robotics, while Robert has covered a wide field of devices. Janet has been hurt in every time she entered the field, a fact which she is very aware of and which is a strain on her and Robert's relationship. Robert and Janet have since spring of 1998 become a couple, with Janet asking him to go slow, as she finds the physical stuff "icky". They have since moved onto quick kisses and hand-holding. Their idea of a date is often working on something technological. Almost everyone else has attempted to persuade them to go on an actual date, to no real avail. It is noted that the mutual interest between Janet and Robert is well-known amongst the school, with Ned, the deceased James and the deceased Julian Carroway asking what took them so long to get together. Despite this, it is arguably the most stable romantic relationship amongst Layla's friend group at the current time. Notes *Janet's eyes have been stated as being both blue and brown on two separate occasions, and her skin has varied from lightly tanned skin to pale. *Janet eventually became significant enough to gain an NPC sheet of her own. In the Roll4It Discord, EnterElysium confirmed her appearance as follows: "Janet is pale, but not like polceline pale or anything. She's the pale of never seeing sunlight. Freckles. Darkish brown hair. 5'3"ish" Category:Layla the Vampire Slayer Category:Non Player Characters